Sheik Amin Tarif, Arab Druse Leader In Israel, Dies at 95

By ERIC PACE

Published: October 5, 1993

Sheik Amin Tarif, the spiritual leader of the Arab Druse in Israel, died Saturday in Julis, a village in northern Israel. He was 95 and lived all his life in Julis.

The cause of his death was not announced.

The Druse are a religious sect, distinct in many ways from their Muslim neighbors. They number in the hundreds of thousands, all told. Eighty-five thousand are in Israel, while others live in nearby Arab countries.

On Sunday, Israel's Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, made public a letter of condolence that he had sent to the Sheik's family. Israeli radio announced that Druse from Lebanon and Syria would be permitted to attend his funeral in Israel on Monday. Became Druse Leader in 1928

The Sheik was born in Julis and was named the spiritual leader of his community in 1928, in what was then British-mandated Palestine.

During the Sheik's long tenure as spiritual leader, Israeli Druse have in some ways become assimilated into Israel's national life and have become known for their loyalty to the state. At their leadership's insistence, they have been drafted into the Israeli armed forces since the 1950's and more than 200 Druse have died in Israel's wars. They have also taken seats in the Israeli Parliament.

The Israeli Druse community supported the recent accord between Israel and the P.L.O.

Over the years, the Sheik's communications with Druse in neighboring Arab countries were sometimes delicate and complex. In 1977, he reportedly asked the Druse members of the Israeli Parliament to raise the issue of Israel's shelling of southern Lebanon with the Israeli Government.

This was after Lebanese Druse had complained to him that the shelling had led to the closing of the Druse religious complex at Al Bayadah, in southern Lebanon, one of the most sacred Druse shrines in that country.